We hopped on just up the road from the hotel, on the Montparnasse - St Germain route, changing to the Paris Grande Tour route to take in all the usual museums and tourist attractions.
It was such a delight to sit and just view this wonderful city - we have been just mesmerised by it - just love all the buildings and amazed at the lack of noise from traffic - and it is very crowded at the moment. Seeing the buildings you are just in awe - they are so large and so gracious at the same time. I have seen photos of the gardens but yes, they do look like they are perfect.
After the Grand Route, we made our way to the Montmartre - Grands Boulevards Route. Saw the Moulin Rouge, and the other "adult education" shops and interesting to a completely different area. We are hoping to get to the Basilique De Sacre-Cour but the crowd was so thick today - not sure if we will have time to go back.
We were also intrigued by the number of houses that had potted gardens, this one below could have done with a little prune .
The general buildings are also a delight - such large doors, and at times you do wonder what the inside of some of the buildings would be like. This top storey looked interesting.
Attractions seen today included, the Eiffel Tower,Arc de Triomphe, Maxims, Notre Dame, Lourve, Champs Élysées, many museums and palaces plus a number of different districts. After some 7 hours we left the bus ( we had been on and off) at Notre Dame and decided to walk back to the hotel, with the idea we would find something to eat on the way. This we did, we came across a couple of small back streets filled with cafe's, restaurants, wine bars. After eating we strolled back - another enjoyable day.
On a little annoying note - we called into a Cafe at lunchtime - they were very nice, we said we only wanted coffee - yes that was ok and sat us down at a table. On the blackboard coffee was 3.50€ but the bill came and it was 7.90€ When we questioned it - their answer was the 3.50€ was for coffee at the bar not the table - no where did it say anything about table charge. ( I should have known better it was next to Ralph Lauren) - anyway that's our first rip off ( that we know about)
While we are enjoying ourselves, at times it is a little difficult - news from home has not been that brilliant. Peters father had a slight stroke, and he is back in hospital now with a chest infection and gall stones. Sandie, Peters sister is taking care of things, but at times it is difficult to keep the holiday in perspective.
Irene has also heard that both her parents have been in hospital and her father appears to have declined somewhat. Again, her sisters are on top of things and while you know you can do nothing more if you were at home ( except be there to support sisters ) it does not stop you worrying.
Having said that, we will continue with our little jaunt in the best way we can.
Day three Paris - here we come!
1 comment:
Aha - the old 'pay more to sit at a table and watch the world go by' scam! Unfortunately, that seems to be the case in many of the places we visited in Europe - you pay more to eat or drink at a table to 'see or be seen'. We found that the 'second row' cafes and restaurants were much cheaper and probably had better coffee!
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